Shove Halfpenny

Since finding out that the world championships for this old pub game are often held locally (Cheltenham & Bath) it has been in the back of my mind to bring this game to Windows Phone 7. My Dad remembers playing and I picked his brain for the rules, essentially the objective is to get 3 coins between the white lines “the beds” using as few coins as possible (5 old Half Pennies are used – I raided the coin collection* I had as a child and polished up some old Half Pennies (Ha’pennies) using some Worcestershire sauce (try it!) – these are the coins you see in the app.

A little more research reveals that there are 3 main board types “Wood” (Mahogany), “Slate” and “Glass”*. I decided to offer each of the board types as options in the game, each having slightly differing surfaces and consequential playing experiences (I have mimicked the different surface types using different physics settings within the app options page).

I am in the fortunate position of being able to visit these local pubs to glean more information on this historic game, which I hope to add to the app by way of ‘bonus information’ (!).

The classic board (above left), still available to purchase today (around 70.00).

* I may have to add some other coins from this collection to help give this app an international appeal!

** Apparently stone was also used, although I have not come across an example of this board.

What’s Missing?

At the time of writing the following is planned:

Turn by turn playing over XBOX live (still waiting to hear back from wpgames at Microsoft – who are those guys?

Additional Game Scoring (traditionally done along the sides of the board)

Coin choices (I am thinking ‘Dimes’ as an option?)

Social Network integration

Basic Help (Rules)

Historical Background Information (I am hoping I can get hold of some old photos of the pubs in question so that there is a loose tie in to http://FromTheMalverns.com !